Run your entire company with Claude Code. 15 AI Agents + 5 Skills + Approval Pipeline. Battle-tested in production for 1+ year.
Overview
This is not a toy project. AI-CEO Framework has been running a real company for over a year: One CEO. Zero employees. Full C-suite powered by Claude Code. Each agent has a defined persona, expertise, workflows, output templates, and quality checks. Reusable, invocable skill definitions that agents call to execute specific tasks. The brain of the system. A single CLAUDE.md that: - Understands natural language requests and routes them to the right department - Manages the approval pipeline for external-facing actions - Coordinates cross-department tasks - Enforces hypothesis validation gates for new initiatives - Maintains a thin context footprint (10-15% utilization) 5-minute setup. Run the script, answer a few questions, and your AI-CEO Framework is live. Every external-facing action (emails, social posts, invoices, deployments) goes through:
README
AI-CEO Framework
Run Your Entire Company with Claude Code
15 AI Agents + 5 Production Skills + Approval Pipeline. One-person company, fully automated.
Battle-Tested in Production
This is not a toy project. AI-CEO Framework has been running a real company for over a year:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Automation rate | 98% of business operations |
| Monthly cost | ~$250/month (Claude Code Max + infrastructure) |
| Departments managed | 11 (Dev, Marketing, Sales, Finance, Legal, CS, HR, Publishing, Growth, Consulting, BizDev) |
| In production since | 2025 (1+ year) |
| AI agents | 15 specialized agents |
| Reusable skills | 5 production-tested skill definitions |
One CEO. Zero employees. Full C-suite powered by Claude Code.
What’s Inside
15 AI Agents (agents/)
Each agent has a defined persona, expertise, workflows, output templates, and quality checks.
| Agent | Role | Key Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| CTO | Chief Technology Officer | Sprint planning, code review, architecture decisions, hotfix management |
| CMO | Chief Marketing Officer | Content strategy, SEO, ad campaigns, social media, analytics |
| CFO | Chief Financial Officer | Monthly P&L, cost optimization, invoicing, cash flow forecasting |
| CSO | Chief Sales Officer | Pipeline management, proposals, lead strategy, CRM |
| Legal | General Counsel | Contract review, compliance checks, OSS license audits, ToS/privacy |
| CS Lead | Customer Success | Escalation management, FAQ, onboarding optimization, NPS |
| HR | Chief HR Officer | Agent skill audits, training plans, performance reviews |
| Publisher | Publishing Director | Book planning, writing, quality scoring, multi-channel publishing |
| Content Engine | Content Producer | SEO articles, books, LP copy, ad copy, social posts |
| Growth | Growth Hacker | Funnel optimization, A/B testing, monetization, pricing |
| Consulting | Consulting VP | AI automation consulting, diagnostics, proposals |
| BizDev | Business Development | Lead generation, partnership development, upsell strategy |
| Tax Accountant | Tax Advisor | Journal entries, tax prep, tax savings, compliance calendar |
| Morning Digest | Daily Briefing | Collects all department states, generates CEO morning digest |
| Setup Wizard | Onboarding | Interview-based setup, generates all initial config files |
5 Skills (skills/)
Reusable, invocable skill definitions that agents call to execute specific tasks.
| Skill | Purpose |
|---|---|
validate-hypothesis |
6-phase business hypothesis validation (prevents building things nobody wants) |
write-blog |
Blog article creation with platform-specific scoring (75+ point threshold) |
polish-content |
Content editing and quality improvement for blog posts |
upgrade-automation |
Detect new Claude Code features and upgrade your automation |
generate-cover |
Book cover image generation using HTML+CSS+Playwright |
Orchestrator (CLAUDE.md)
The brain of the system. A single CLAUDE.md that:
- Understands natural language requests and routes them to the right department
- Manages the approval pipeline for external-facing actions
- Coordinates cross-department tasks
- Enforces hypothesis validation gates for new initiatives
- Maintains a thin context footprint (10-15% utilization)
Steering Files (steering/)
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
permissions.md |
Permission levels (read-only / draft / execute), cost thresholds, deploy rules |
policies.md |
Security, quality, cost management, development process, compliance policies |
Setup Script (setup.sh)
5-minute setup. Run the script, answer a few questions, and your AI-CEO Framework is live.
Architecture
flowchart TD
CEO["CEO (You)"]
ORC["CLAUDE.md\n(Orchestrator)"]
CEO -->|Natural language| ORC
ORC --> CTO["CTO Agent\nSprints, Code Review"]
ORC --> CMO["CMO Agent\nContent, SEO, Ads"]
ORC --> CFO["CFO Agent\nP&L, Invoicing"]
ORC --> CSO["CSO Agent\nSales Pipeline"]
ORC --> LGL["Legal Agent\nContracts, Compliance"]
ORC --> PUB["Publisher Agent\nBooks, Multi-channel"]
ORC --> MORE["+ 9 more agents..."]
ORC --> HYP["Hypothesis\nValidation"]
ORC --> APQ["Approval\nPipeline"]
HYP -->|Go / No-Go| ORC
APQ -->|CEO approves| EXE["Execute"]
APQ -->|CEO rejects| REJ["Reject + Feedback"]
style CEO fill:#f9a825,stroke:#f57f17,color:#000
style ORC fill:#1565c0,stroke:#0d47a1,color:#fff
style HYP fill:#7b1fa2,stroke:#4a148c,color:#fff
style APQ fill:#c62828,stroke:#b71c1c,color:#fff
style EXE fill:#2e7d32,stroke:#1b5e20,color:#fff
How It Works
The Approval Pipeline
Every external-facing action (emails, social posts, invoices, deployments) goes through:
- Agent creates a draft in
approval-queue.md - CEO reviews with
/ai-ceo:approveor/ai-ceo:reject "reason" - Approved items execute automatically
This prevents AI from sending embarrassing emails or deploying broken code to production.
Hypothesis Validation Gate
Before any new product, ad channel, or significant investment:
- Phase 0: Idea origin check (is this customer-driven or self-driven?)
- Gate 1: Market existence confirmation (data-backed)
- Gate 2: Customer/competitor interviews (3+ companies)
- Gate 3: Interview evaluation (fact strength scoring)
- Gate 4: Willingness to pay (LOI, pre-orders, written commitment)
- Gate 5: Minimum viable test (no-code validation)
- Decision: Go / No-Go / Retreat (with learning documentation)
Max 2 retries. If it fails twice, a retreat report is generated. This prevents building things nobody wants.
Quick Start (5 minutes)
1. Clone and setup
# Copy the framework to your project
cp -r ai-ceo-framework-pack/.claude/ your-project/.claude/
cp ai-ceo-framework-pack/CLAUDE.md your-project/CLAUDE.md
# Run the setup script
cd your-project
bash .claude/setup.sh
2. Answer setup questions
The script will ask you:
- Company name
- Your name (CEO)
- Business description
- Products you’re building
- Tech stack
- External tools (accounting, CRM, etc.)
- Which departments to prioritize
- AI budget
3. Start using it
Open Claude Code in your project directory. Just talk naturally:
> "What's our status today?"
> "Write a blog post about AI automation"
> "Run a dev sprint"
> "Review this contract: [paste]"
> "Generate an invoice for Client X"
> "What are our marketing KPIs?"
Or use explicit commands:
> /ai-ceo:morning -- Daily briefing
> /ai-ceo:status -- Quick status check
> /ai-ceo:dev:sprint -- Run a development sprint
> /ai-ceo:mkt:content-plan -- Monthly content calendar
> /ai-ceo:fin:monthly-report -- Monthly P&L
> /ai-ceo:approve AQ-001 -- Approve a pending item
Directory Structure
After setup, your project will have:
your-project/
CLAUDE.md # Orchestrator (main brain)
.claude/
agents/
cto-agent.md # 15 agent definitions
cmo-agent.md
...
skills/
validate-hypothesis/SKILL.md # 5 skill definitions
write-blog/SKILL.md
...
.company/
VISION.md # Mission & vision
STATE.md # Current business state
ROADMAP.md # Quarterly roadmap
approval-queue.md # Pending approvals
steering/
permissions.md # Permission levels & thresholds
policies.md # Company policies
brand.md # Brand guidelines
tech-stack.md # Tech stack conventions
products/
{product-name}/
STATE.md # Per-product state
departments/
dev/STATE.md # Per-department state
marketing/STATE.md
sales/STATE.md
finance/STATE.md
cs/STATE.md
legal/STATE.md
hr/STATE.md
publishing/STATE.md
consulting/STATE.md
decisions/
{YYYY-MM}.md # CEO decision log
FAQ
Q: Does this work with Claude Code free tier? A: The framework itself works with any Claude Code plan. However, sub-agents (which use the Agent tool) require Claude Code Max ($100/month) or Claude Code with an Anthropic API key. For optimal performance, Claude Code Max is recommended.
Q: What languages does the framework support? A: The framework templates are in English. All agent definitions and commands work in English. You can customize agents to work in any language after setup.
Q: Can I add my own agents?
A: Yes. Create a new .md file in .claude/agents/ following the same format (frontmatter + persona + workflows + quality checks). The orchestrator will automatically discover it.
Q: Can I remove agents I don’t need? A: Yes. Simply delete the agent file. The orchestrator gracefully handles missing departments.
Q: How does this differ from just writing a long CLAUDE.md? A: Three key differences: (1) The orchestrator keeps its context at 10-15% by delegating to sub-agents instead of loading everything into one prompt. (2) The approval pipeline prevents AI from taking unauthorized external actions. (3) Each agent has specialized expertise, quality checks, and output templates that a monolithic CLAUDE.md cannot maintain.
Q: Is my data safe?
A: All data stays in your local .company/ directory. Nothing is sent anywhere except through Claude Code’s normal API calls. The framework includes security policies and permission controls out of the box.
Q: Can I use this for a team (not solo)? A: The framework was designed for one-person companies but works for small teams too. The approval pipeline naturally supports a single decision-maker (CEO). For larger teams, you may want to customize the approval flow.
Q: What if an agent fails? A: Built-in error handling: retry up to 3 times with feedback, then escalate to the CEO via the approval queue. Error logs are written to each department’s error-log.md.
Professional Support
Need help setting up AI-CEO Framework for your company? JoinClass LLC offers consulting services:
- Free 30-min AI diagnosis — We analyze your business operations and identify the top 3 areas where AI automation will have the biggest impact
- Custom setup — We configure the framework for your specific business needs
- Ongoing support — Monthly advisory for AI operations optimization
Before / After
| Without AI-CEO | With AI-CEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | One giant CLAUDE.md with everything | 15 specialized agents + thin orchestrator |
| Context usage | 100% consumed instantly | 10-15% orchestrator, delegates the rest |
| External actions | AI sends emails, deploys freely | Approval pipeline: draft -> review -> execute |
| Error handling | Errors silently ignored | Auto-retry 3x, then escalate to CEO |
| New initiatives | Build first, validate later | Hypothesis validation gate (6 phases) |
| Quality | No standards | Per-agent quality checks + scoring thresholds |
| Scaling | Rewrite everything | Add a new .md file, orchestrator auto-discovers |
What This Really Is
This is not a prompt collection. It’s a production-grade operating system for running a company with AI. Every agent, every workflow, every quality check was refined through 1+ year of daily use. The hypothesis validation skill alone has saved tens of thousands of dollars by killing bad ideas early.
This is the distilled experience of running an entire company with Claude Code – the failures, the fixes, and the frameworks that survived.
Star History
Contributing
Contributions are welcome! Whether it’s a bug report, feature request, or pull request – all input is valued.
- Issues: Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue.
- Pull Requests: Fork the repo, make your changes, and submit a PR. Please keep changes focused and include a clear description.
- Discussions: Questions or ideas that aren’t quite issues? Start a discussion.
License
MIT License. See LICENSE for details.
Built with Claude Code. Tested in production. Ready for yours.
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Install
npx skillfish add joinclass/ai-ceo-framework